{"id":29965,"date":"2010-10-19T21:16:25","date_gmt":"2010-10-20T02:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=29965"},"modified":"2010-10-20T02:16:11","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T07:16:11","slug":"the-yes-men-vs-chevron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/the-yes-men-vs-chevron\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yes Men vs. Chevron"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
One of several fake Chevron ads created by the Yes Men. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Editor’s note:<\/strong> Yesterday I noticed this suspicious-looking email from Chevron Oil in my inbox and dispatched it without opening it to my junk mail folder. How the hell did Chevron get my email address? Lo and behold, today I received an email from the Yes Men claiming responsibility for the prank, in which they preempted the oil giant’s attempt at a “greenwashing” ad campaign and managed to confuse the heck out of the media. <\/p>\n

We’ve met the Yes Men — Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum — before in the pages of Planet Waves. Anti-corporate activists, they create media hoaxes with a mission. In one case<\/a>, they crashed the 2007 Gas and Oil Expo with candles made from “Vivoleum,” a fictitious sustainable oil substitute made from human flesh. More recently (about a year ago), Eric fell in with them<\/a> as the promoted their movie, The Yes Men Fix The World — photographing a screening that became a protest event in a Manhattan Whole Foods. Mike and Andy have elevated environmental activism into performance art carried out with a precision that’s nothing short of astonishing.<\/p>\n

I’ve included their email from today in its entirety with links, since they describe the shenanigans so well. — amanda<\/em><\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
\nOctober 19, 2010<\/p>\n

Massive Chevron Ad Campaign Derailed, Media Slapstick Follows
\nNews outlets, citizens duped by web of deceit — but whose?<\/p>\n

A day-long comedy of errors began Monday morning when the Yes Men, supported by Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch, pre-empted Chevron’s enormous new \u201cWe Agree\u201d<\/a> ad campaign with a satirical version of their own. The activists’ version<\/a> highlights Chevron’s environmental and social abuses — the same abuses they say Chevron is attempting to \u201cgreenwash.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChevron’s super-expensive fake street art is a cynical attempt to gloss over the human rights abuses and environmental degradation that is the legacy of Chevron’s operations in Ecuador, Nigeria, Burma and throughout the world,\u201d said Ginger Cassady, a campaigner at Rainforest Action Network. \u201cThey must think we’re stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say we’re ‘interrupting the dialogue,’\u201d said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men, referring to Chevron’s terse condemnation<\/a>. \u201cWhat dialogue? Chevron’s ad campaign is an insulting, confusing monologue – with many tens of millions of dollars behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The activists’ pre-emptive campaign began early Monday with a press release<\/a> from a spoof Chevron domain, which launched the fake \u201cWe Agree\u201d campaign hours before the real Chevron could launch its ads. The fake \u201cWe Agree\u201d site featured four \u201cimproved\u201d advertisements, complete with downloadable PDF files to be used in on-the-street postering.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nine hours later, after producing its own \u201cWe Agree\u201d press release<\/a>, the real Chevron decried the hoax in a predictably curt and humorless manner<\/a>. Mere moments later, the counter-campaign issued a much better denial<\/a> on Chevron’s behalf, laying out Chevron’s principal arguments in its Ecuador case. \u201cWe have binding agreements with the Ecuadorian Government exempting us from any liabilities whatsoever, granted in exchange for a $40 million cleanup of some wells by Texaco in the 1990s,\u201d the spoof press release crowed, absurdly yet accurately.<\/p>\n

Throughout the day, a sort of slow vaudeville unfolded on the web, as a number of outlets, from industry mouthpieces to the AFP and even a watchdog group, produced accidental mash-ups of \u201creal\u201d and fake information.<\/p>\n

First, Fast Company fell for the hoax (archived article here<\/a>), then related their duping<\/a> with humor. An outlet called \u201cEnvironmental Leader,\u201d quoted indiscriminately from both real and fake press releases, before quietly removing the fake parts a few hours later (original article archived here<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Shortly after that, Energy Digital, an online source providing \u201cnews and information for Energy Executives\u201d (capitalization theirs), quoted extensively (archive here<\/a>) from the fake release to describe Chevron’s campaign, then mentioned that the campaign had \u201calready been spoofed.\u201d They didn’t realize they’d just fallen for that very same spoof.<\/p>\n

Even the AFP found itself duped (original article archived here<\/a>), and described with glee the hoax \u201cthat appeared to have fooled some news outlets,\u201d before going on to quote \u201cthe real firm\u201d at length. (The \u201creal firm\u201d wasn’t.)<\/p>\n

Nor were industry watchdog groups immune. \u201cOil Watchdog\u201d dissected the hoax minutely and accurately, before citing Advertising Age as one of the outlets duped. That whole article<\/a>, however, was a fake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you really want to snooker the media, it’s pretty hard for them to resist,\u201d said Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men. \u201cWe cobbled together some fake releases with string and thumbtacks and chewing gum, and we fooled the most respectable outlets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChevron is doing what we did, a million times over, with a ginormous budget – and it never reveals its subterfuge,\u201d said Bichlbaum. \u201cNo wonder the media’s full of lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday’s spoof was a comedy of errors, but what’s happening in Ecuador is no joke,\u201d said Mitch Anderson, a campaigner at Amazon Watch. \u201cWhile Chevron spends tens of millions every year to greenwash their image and fool the media, Ecuadorians continue to die from their toxic legacy.”<\/p>\n

Yesterday’s hoax is just the beginning for the activists. \u201cStay tuned,\u201d said RAN’s Cassady. \u201cThere’s a lot more to come in the days ahead. We’re going to keep Chevron scrambling<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contacts:
\nGinger Cassady, Rainforest Action Network, ginger@ran.org, (415) 640-7155
\nHan Shan, Amazon Watch, han@amazonwatch.org, (917) 418-4133
\nAndy Bichlbaum, The Yes Men, press@theyesmen.org<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

The Yes Men work to expose corporate crimes, mainly through humor.<\/p>\n

RAN’s Change Chevron campaign is uniting communities, investors, religious leaders, celebrities, students, policy makers and Chevron employees to transform the oil giant. For more information about the campaign, visit www.ChangeChevron.org.<\/p>\n

Since 2002, Amazon Watch’s Clean Up Ecuador Campaign has supported the demands of indigenous and farming communities affected by the operations of Texaco (now Chevron) in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Learn more at chevrontoxico.com <\/p>\n

~end of Yes Men email~<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Yesterday I noticed this suspicious-looking email from Chevron Oil in my inbox and dispatched it without opening it to my junk mail folder. How the hell did Chevron get my email address? Lo and behold, today I received an email from the Yes Men claiming responsibility for the prank, in which they preempted … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}